Archive for the 'K D Lang' Tag Under 'Soundcheck' Category

Will it be older-than-her-years Haley or as-young-as-she-looks Lauren? Country Scotty or the straight Adam Lambert? Tougher to predict: Will any of them have much of a career after a year?

Probably not, I figure, but before their ride ends those four finalists plus seven other contestants from Fox's cash-cow game show (a little more than half are pictured above) will help collect profits from fans by heading out on the annual American Idol Live! tour, which this year makes two nearby stops: July 15 at Nokia Theatre in the L.A. Live complex and July 16 at Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario. Both are smaller than the usual locations for this outing, Honda Center and Staples Center.

Tickets, $45-$65 for either show, go on sale Friday, May 13, at 10 a.m.

Also at Nokia: Roberto Tapia with Enigma Norteño, July 16, $35-$85. Meanwhile, across the plaza at Club Nokia: B'z, July 24, $55 ... Zoe, July 30, $29.50-$49.50 ... and the Musical Box, a tribute to Genesis, Oct. 20, $32.50 in advance, $35 day of show, $38 for VIP. All of those go on sale Friday at 10 a.m., apart from B'z, which is on sale Saturday at the same time.

She may not have plans as grand as her recent tourmate Rod Stewart, who is off to Vegas for a residency at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace that starts in late August, but Stevie Nicks has her own treat for fans: the gypsy that remains will celebrate her 63rd birthday with a "special intimate performance" at the Wiltern on May 26. Tickets, $38.50-$102.50, are on sale Friday at 10 a.m.

It's all over, and our faithful scribes are back home. But we still have the last few performances to touch on. Here's George A. Paul's final report from the fest ...

Patriotism is regularly intertwined with country music. Yet over the weekend at Stagecoach 2011 there were so many American flags around the Empire Polo Grounds -- on top of RVs, placed next to Mane Stage denizens' blankets on the grass, as a clothing or bandana design -- you could have been fooled into thinking it was suddenly Independence Day.

During an evening when our nation rejoiced about a terrorist finally meeting his demise, Larry Gatlin & the Gatlin Brothers bookended their enjoyable set, appropriately enough, with “America the Beautiful.”

After a long hiatus, the siblings returned to recording and live appearances with 2009's Pilgrimage, an enlightening studio release that found them mixing old and new country/gospel songs with narratives and help from Kris Kristofferson, Randy Scruggs and producer John Carter Cash. A 60-song retrospective came out last year, and lately Larry has served as a commentator on Fox News and subbed for radio personality Don Imus.

The moderate crowd watching the Gatlins on the Palomino Stage witnessed a somewhat shortened set due to previous delays in that tent. (Junior Brown's unannounced switch from Sunday to Saturday at that location might have had something to do with that. Earlier, I talked to some Brown fans who were unaware and disappointed.)

Disappointing news for Stagecoach attendees who go most of all for the festival's traditional country legends: Loretta Lynn has pulled out of the event as the country queen, who turned 79 last week, has injured her knee and must postpone her coming performances.

If it's any consolation, there was an addition to the lineup a few weeks ago: k.d. lang and her new band the Siss Boom Bang, who put out their Nonesuch album Sing It Loud at the start of the month.

True, the folksy assortment, which reunites the former Mr. MacManus with producer and longtime Coward Brothers collaborator T Bone Burnett, has more than a few echoes of the past, namely from his country covers collection Almost Blue (1981) and one of his finest masterworks, King of America (1986), a similarly sparse and rustic effort co-helmed by Burnett long before he rose to such prominent, Grammy-winning stature with O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Robert Plant & Alison Krauss' Raising Sand.

If anything, SP&S is a more mature, burnished and sometimes somber sequel to King of America -- and now, lucky us, Costello and his newly assembled group the Sugarcanes (presumably including Burnett and album assistants Jerry Douglass and Jim Lauderdale) are hitting the road, set to stop Aug. 18 at the Greek Theatre.

As previously mentioned, Lucinda Williams will make for an ideal opener. Tickets, $32.50-$67.50, go on sale Saturday, June 6, at 10 a.m. (By the way, does anyone remember the last time Costello played the Greek? Or has he ever? Been wracking my brain, but nothing's coming to me.)

Also new at the Greek and on sale at that time: Go Country's Summer Under the Stars featuring Rodney Atkins, Jack Ingram and the Eli Young Band, Aug. 9, $35-$80 ... Shant All Stars Grand Concert featuring Alla Levonyan, Seyran Tigranyan and more, Sept. 20, $30-$125 ... and a return visit from the reunited Loggins & Messina, with the Gabe Dixon Band opening, Oct. 2, $45-$100.